We should also use this thread to rate our own predictions from last year. Here are mine:
Methods of Rationality updates—will there be any?
Yes. But not enough to make it feel like the story is moving towards a conclusion.
I’m not sure how to score this one. The trial arc had big changes to the status quo that make me think the story must revolve soon. Quirrell is on Harry’s list of suspects for the frame-up, Harry now sees himself as being at war. Also, Draco is gone, and Eliezer had so much fun with the Draco-Harry dynamic that I doubt Eliezer would have gotten rid of Draco unless the fic were nearing its end. I made these inferences before, and had them confirmed by, the November status update.
At the same time, it’s very hard for me to see how the story could possibly resolve. I’m sure Eliezer will give Harry a way to win, but what way could that possibly be? Harry figuring out who Quirrell is could happen very easily, and from there it’s not a big leap to make some informed guesses about horcrux locations. But there’s the general problem of Rational!Voldemort being too smart to be defeated any of the ways he’s defeated in canon, and more specific things getting in the way of a resolution, like how on earth will Harry actually destroy the horcruxes, even if he knew where they all are?
[Medical advances] will be incremental, enough so that very, very few people will notice any practical impact on their lives. Some advances, however, will be accompanied by a great deal of hype. Evidence will emerge that some treatments which we think work now do not in fact work.
Haven’t taken a poll, but I’ve heard no news reports contracting the first sentence. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any super hyped-up news reports to confirm the rest of the prediction. It wouldn’t surprise me if the third sentence were true and I just haven’t heard about it—can anyone help me there?
I will continue to believe cryonics is something I would sign up for if I had money to spare, but will also continue to feel too poor to have money to spare.
This was correct.
I expect to be amazed by at least one cool new application of computing that vaguely resembles human intelligence.
I found out about the Google Goggles app, and was impressed on first hearing about it, though less impressed on actually trying it. Does this count? I had “something Siri-like” in mind when I made this prediction, and still haven’t tried Siri, so I don’t know if I’d be disappointed by Siri.
General comment: my predictions were made only semi-jokingly, as an attempt to find things so banal they could not fail. But I think I may have gone overboard applying the heuristic “2012 will be a lot like 2011.” 2012 didn’t differ dramatically from 2011, but I underestimated the number of boring ways it would differ.
The difference between your medical prediction and your computing prediction really struck me. I don’t mean the difference between the fields, but the difference in how you proposed to measure them. Your computing prediction was about your own reaction and thus fairly easy to score. But your medical predictions were about absolute progress, hyper, and research, and thus difficult to score.
My pet peeve on these threads are predictions like yours that I cannot identify as predicting stasis or change! If you predicted amazement in 2012, just like in 2011, at least I’d know that and I could make a parallel prediction about my own amazement. If you had chosen a specific instance of amazement in 2011, it would have made it clear to me what you meant and it might have helped you judge whether your 2012 experiences lived up to it.
We should also use this thread to rate our own predictions from last year. Here are mine:
I’m not sure how to score this one. The trial arc had big changes to the status quo that make me think the story must revolve soon. Quirrell is on Harry’s list of suspects for the frame-up, Harry now sees himself as being at war. Also, Draco is gone, and Eliezer had so much fun with the Draco-Harry dynamic that I doubt Eliezer would have gotten rid of Draco unless the fic were nearing its end. I made these inferences before, and had them confirmed by, the November status update.
At the same time, it’s very hard for me to see how the story could possibly resolve. I’m sure Eliezer will give Harry a way to win, but what way could that possibly be? Harry figuring out who Quirrell is could happen very easily, and from there it’s not a big leap to make some informed guesses about horcrux locations. But there’s the general problem of Rational!Voldemort being too smart to be defeated any of the ways he’s defeated in canon, and more specific things getting in the way of a resolution, like how on earth will Harry actually destroy the horcruxes, even if he knew where they all are?
Haven’t taken a poll, but I’ve heard no news reports contracting the first sentence. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any super hyped-up news reports to confirm the rest of the prediction. It wouldn’t surprise me if the third sentence were true and I just haven’t heard about it—can anyone help me there?
This was correct.
I found out about the Google Goggles app, and was impressed on first hearing about it, though less impressed on actually trying it. Does this count? I had “something Siri-like” in mind when I made this prediction, and still haven’t tried Siri, so I don’t know if I’d be disappointed by Siri.
General comment: my predictions were made only semi-jokingly, as an attempt to find things so banal they could not fail. But I think I may have gone overboard applying the heuristic “2012 will be a lot like 2011.” 2012 didn’t differ dramatically from 2011, but I underestimated the number of boring ways it would differ.
The difference between your medical prediction and your computing prediction really struck me. I don’t mean the difference between the fields, but the difference in how you proposed to measure them. Your computing prediction was about your own reaction and thus fairly easy to score. But your medical predictions were about absolute progress, hyper, and research, and thus difficult to score.
My pet peeve on these threads are predictions like yours that I cannot identify as predicting stasis or change! If you predicted amazement in 2012, just like in 2011, at least I’d know that and I could make a parallel prediction about my own amazement. If you had chosen a specific instance of amazement in 2011, it would have made it clear to me what you meant and it might have helped you judge whether your 2012 experiences lived up to it.